Interact
After the video, prompts are supplied for thinking and sharing with others personal perception and experience. This opening activity prompts participants to think about and relate to the topic, and to share with others.
Our culture often celebrates people for their influence, followers, and achievements. Yet some of the most remarkable people are busy helping others when no one is watching.
In 1939, Nicholas Winton helped bring 669 children, most of them Jewish, out of Czechoslovakia. He rarely spoke about it. Nearly fifty years later, he sat in the audience of a BBC television show as the host told his story. He did not know that Vera Gissing, one of the children he had helped rescue, was sitting beside him. On a later episode, the host asked whether anyone else in the audience owed their life to Winton. People all around him stood. Even as he received their gratitude, Winton thought of the children he had been unable to save.
Who do you know whose first instinct is to help, even when the need is great and no one may notice what they do?
Insight
The Bible discussion begins with a careful reading of the whole passage, either from your own Bibles, or from the provided images below.
Then participants are to ask:
- What is going on in this passage of Scripture?
- What are the key words and phrases? Highlight them.
- Why do you think this passage is included in the Bible?
- What does it contribute to our “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ”?
Mary begins her song with joy: “My soul glorifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46). She has been given an astonishing place in God’s story, yet she speaks first about what God has done. She calls him “God my Savior” and says He has been “mindful” of her humble circumstances. Mary was a young woman many people might have overlooked. God saw her. Hannah expressed a similar joy when God heard her prayer (1 Samuel 1:11; 2:1). Gideon wondered why God would choose someone from an unimportant family (Judges 6:15), and David asked, “Who am I, Sovereign Lord?” when God promised him a future (2 Samuel 7:18). What did each of them see in God’s attention that others might have missed?
Mary knows future generations will call her blessed, but she gives the reason: “The Mighty One has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49). His power reaches into one person’s life, and his mercy extends “from generation to generation.” Psalm 113:7-8 pictures God lifting people from the dust. Mary’s song holds humility and joy together. She does not pretend the calling is small, or that she earned it. She celebrates the God who saw her and entrusted her with something greater than she could have imagined.
Insight Out
A parting video clip with a personal invitation to apply the message to “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ” in the coming week.